Donald Trump declared on Friday, November 14, that he would sue the BBC for up to $5 billion (approximately €4.3 billion), after the British channel apologized for broadcasting a misleading montage of the American president’s speech, but rejected accusations of defamation.
“We will chase them (amount is included) between $1 billion and $5 billion, probably sometime next week. I think I should do it. They even admitted to cheating”he said aboard the presidential plane Air Force One.
The BBC, a true institution in the UK, has been in turmoil since the recent revelation that its flagship news magazine “Panorama”, just before the 2024 US presidential election, broadcast separate excerpts from Donald Trump’s speech on January 6, 2021 that were edited in such a way that he appeared to explicitly call on his supporters to attack the Capitol in Washington.
“(Keir Starmer) is very embarrassed”
“British people are furious about what happened, as you can imagine, because it shows that the BBC is nothing but fake news.”Donald Trump said on Friday. He also said he planned to raise the issue with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. The latter had promised, on Wednesday, to “defending a strong, independent BBC”. “I was going to call him this weekend. But he called me, he was so embarrassed”added the American president.
Donald Trump and his lawyers gave Britain’s public broadcasting group until Friday to apologize and withdraw the documentary including a damning montage.
BBC Chairman Samir Shah sent a letter to Donald Trump on Thursday “personal letter” apologize, but also deny it “legal basis” for defamation complaints. The affair led to the resignations of the public broadcaster’s chief executive, Tim Davie, and BBC News boss Deborah Turness.
